I have tried to follow these instructions numerous times, but it never, ever works. I always get "no target" or "no directory" errors, or something. I do find that I am often confused as to what directory I am supposed to be in, but I haven't found clear instructions about this.

Could be a whole bunch of things - prerequisite libraries not installed, missing build tools, version mismatch on libraries. Can you post the terminal output of your latest attempt (place between <code> tags; see the "</>" above). Also need your Mint version and what software you're trying to build.

Linux newbies are usually advised to avoid installing from tar files unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. Having the newest version doesn't usually qualify as necessary. Insrtalling those dependencies ... which, as noted, you have to deal with yourself ... will often remove the versions already there, which will often break other programs. It's really a very good way to break your OS if you're a beginner.

If you do need a newer version than the repo one, which does happen, try to find a ppa or .deb version. This will handle rependencies, They still may break things so don't just blindly click, if it says it's going to remove something stop if you don't know what it is.

Also, Mint is Ubuntu based except for LMDE, and Ubuntu is the biggest distro out there. If a program's devs can't even provide a.deb file for a Ubuntu based distro it's probably poorly maintained and I don't want it anyway.

The last time I installed from a tar file it was a backported wireless driver for my netbook. That was about 5 years ago and IMO was necessary. I use very few ppas or debs. The repo software is usually best, and newer versions are rarely all that new anyway. Most of this software is quite mature, the FOSS world wouldn;t work otherwise.